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GREAT, GRAND & FAMOUS CHEFS AND THEIR SIGNATURE DISHES
My
y
eanwhile, on the other side of the world, a young
man arrived in a foreign land. He knew nothing
of the language, little of the culture. He did know
a bit about cooking. He worked with those who
could teach him. He learned. He opened a small
restaurant. Then a bigger one.
Pretty soon that restaurant was one of the
best in the world. Even so, he didn't care to talk
about it much. But if you pressed him about it he
would say, with the humility that is so prized in
his adopted land, "I'm just a cook. It's only food.
Yes. In the end, it's just food."
Tetsuya Wakuda, the accidental chef. "I am
very lucky, I think."
Australia is lucky, too. Tets, as he is universally
known, was not intending to stay---he was just
planning to earn some money before embarking
for America. Famously, he knew only that in
Australia kangaroos and koalas were 'everywhere'
(he soon learned differently) but he knew
enough of the language to tell a Greek real estate
agent that he needed three things---a room, a job,
and English lessons! The real estate agent had a
suggestion. He said, "Tetsuya, the best school is
in the kitchen. They feed you, teach you English
then they pay you at the end of the week. What
other school does that?"
TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS
If this suggests that Tets found both his home
and his vocation completely by accident, then
that is not strictly true. For three years he
had worked in a large Tokyo hotel, learning
western food as well as Japanese. "All the
basic techniques." But as training was entirely
dependent on the whim of the chef for whom
one worked, Tets was not convinced that
cooking was really for him. Indeed, he had an
idea that he might become a gunsmith.
But when he arrived in Australia at the
age of 22 he found himself, thanks to the good
advice he had received from his real estate agent,